Blog Tour, Reviews & Guest Post: SHINE NOT BURN by Elle Casey

I can’t be held responsible. Things that happen there are supposed to stay there, right? Right? Yeeeah. Not so much.

Andie’s just days away from tying the knot, but there’s just ooooone little glitch. Apparently, she’s already married. Or someone with her name is married to a guy out in Oregon of all places, and the courthouse won’t issue her a marriage license until it’s all cleared up. Tripping her way through cow pies and country songs to meet up with a man who gets around places on horseback is her very last idea of how to have a good time, but if she’s going to get married, make partner at the firm, and have two point five kids before she’s thirty-five, she needs to get to the bottom of this snafu and fix it quick … before her fiance finds out and everything she’s been working toward goes up in flames.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to read next and Dawn was reading this one. She was liking it, so I said, okay I am going to start this cowboy read too. He he this book is funny. I mean so many laugh out loud, Oh no she didn’t moments.

I mean, my jaw was slack, then it’s way late and I am messaging Dawn.

“OMG She is playing black jack, this is so flippin funny.”

Besides just great humor, this book has so much more. A super hot alpha Cowboy that goes by Mack, is all man. He is the strong male when he needs to be. He is also funny, loyal, hot, sexy, family oriented, did I say sexy. Ha!

Then our lead female, Andie, she is living her life with ‘should’s. A list she has created to assemble the perfect life. Things just don’t seem to be happening the way she has outlined no matter how many times she has written the pan. Her Cowboy seems to be the one thing she never planned for.

This book also has great secondary characters. I could see spinoffs of this novel very easily. Andie’s best friends, Candice and Kelly, have their own fun-ness to them. I love that in a book when you really care about the secondary characters. I loved Mack’s mom and I loved, Rose, Andie’s assistant.

This story has the perfect blend of seriousness, sex, and laughter. I recommend this for when you need a bit of a lighter read, that will captivate you the whole way through and keep a grin on your face.

Dawn’s Review 4.5 Stars

Oh good lord this book had me laughing out loud so often and then seriously swooning the next moment!! I love a book that has me snorting with laughter and shaking my head at the characters because you think, damn, that was embarassingly funny and I could so see myself doing that! Oh, and add a hottie cowboy in the mix…hello! Elle Casey’s Shine Not Burn was exactly that for me. This was a fun, crazy book with a ton of humor in it and lots of heat between the two main characters, Andie and Mack.

“I doubted at this point whether I’d be able to string a coherent sentence together. His beauty combined with his slow-talking cowboy sexiness had completely robbed me of any intelligence.” ~Andie

From the moment Andie and Mack meet in Vegas, there is an instant connection. The heat level rises and you know the saying, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas? Well, in Andie’s case, that’s not necessarily the case. After returning home, she discovers what her mind has blocked – what exactly happened that night in Vegas with Mack. But she has a plan for her life and now she has choices to make.

Let’s talk about Mack for a moment…

“I thought bodies like this were only alive in my fantasies. I didn’t realize they existed in reality.” He ran his hand down my ribs and hip. “Curves everywhere.” He looked into my eyes. “The body of a real, honest-to-God woman.” ~Mack

*melts into the my ereader* Seriously, this sexy, sweet cowboy in his well-worn jeans and cowboy hat can make you fall in love with cowboys everywhere! He also has plans for his life but do those plans include Andie? That is all part of the journey in Shine Not Burn.

There were so many moments that stand out in my mind with Shine Not Burn. I found myself constantly highlighting parts or messaging friends with them because they were downright smoking hot or fall off my couch funny. The interactions between Andie, her friends, Mack, his family, and the townspeople in Baker City, Oregon, were all so real and added to the story perfectly.

Shine Not Burn is a story of taking chances, doing what is expected versus what is in your heart, and a story about of family and love and not giving up on what you want. It was exactly what I needed to pick me up, leaving me with a smile on my face. Overall, I can only say I simply adored this book and I immediately ran out to buy another one by Elle because I loved her writing voice in Shine.

Review copy provided for honest review.

Guest Post

Up All Night here. We were fortunate enough to have Elle share her thoughts with us on the blog today. After reading Shine Not Burn, we just had to know the answer to this question. Enjoy!

Oftentimes people find themselves living life for what they think they should be doing instead of what is in their hearts. This is a huge theme in this story, can you talk about why you chose to write about this?

It’s funny you ask this question. I never considered this theme as I was writing the book necessarily, but you’re right, it’s there! And it’s a theme that’s kind of near and dear to my heart, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to see that my subconscious mind has been in the driver’s seat once again. Crazy head of mine. I never know who’s in charge in there…

All my life, I was told I had to follow a very specific plan to be successful. High school (get all As), college (Ivy League if possible), then find a professional job, keep it for 30 years, retire. Boom. That was my life plan, set up very neatly for me and when I was very young, by my parents. Problem was, I was never down with that plan. I wanted to be a singer in a band. I wanted to travel Europe and learn another language. I wanted to smoke dope and have sex with guys before marriage. I was definitely not following their plan. I was all about the anti-plan. The non-plan.

I eventually grew up and after bucking the system for a while, settled down into a plan of sorts. But then every few years I’d get bored with that plan and have to start another one. For 2 decades, I tried to follow a plan, but my personality just kept getting in the way of it. I finally gave up the ghost and asked myself, “Self, so what is it exactly you want to do with yourself?” And I answered the question exactly as I would have 28 years before: “I want to live in Europe and learn another language and travel around and work wherever and whenever I feel like it.” And so that’s what I did. I packed up my life, my kids, my husband, my dog, everything, and I moved to France. Three years later, I’m doing exactly what I’ve always wanted to do, since I was fifteen years old. And I’ve never been happier. I am living the anti-plan, just like Andie has begun to do at the end of Shine Not Burn.

I wasted a lot of years trying to make everyone else happy and proud of me. I tried way too long to fit into a mold that others had built for me. I ignored my inner Andie and did the responsible thing for a really long time. But I was never truly happy. I’m afraid too many people are like I was. They live in a rut, the routine created for them by society or family or bosses or whoever; and those people are miserable. I personally never want to be in that place again, but I understand how some people feel stuck. Andie wanted to be stuck there, in Shine Not Burn, because it made her feel safe, grounded. But it was all just a mirage she was trying to make real, but it wasn’t working. Like most women, like I did for years, she fought against her heart. She tried to do what she thought was right, even when it felt really wrong. But in the end, love won out. Just like Andie, I found a guy who encouraged me to spread my wings, think outside the box, try something a little different and see where it might take me. It is my sincerest hope that people are inspired by my stories, or if not inspired, then at least entertained. Thanks for the great question and for sharing my work with your followers. 🙂

UAN: THANK YOU to Elle Casey for stopping by the blog today and sharing a bit of yourself with us. <3

About the Author

Elle Casey is a full-time writer of New Adult and Young Adult titles in several genres, including romance, urban fantasy, sci-fi dystopian, and action-adventure. She’s an American girl who’s been living in southern France with her husband and three children since 2010. She loves chatting with her readers, so feel free to drop her a line.